San Rafael camera show is a snap for photographers

Sonny Pichay triumphantly displayed a used Nikon 28-80 zoom lens he had just bought for $60 at the San Rafael Camera Show on Sunday. "On eBay, this would have cost me $200," the photography student exulted.

A 1905 spy camera disguised as a watch, a 30-pound teak color camera from 1930, three white umbrellas, countless tripods, myriad accessories and hundreds more cameras were on display at the show in San Rafael Sunday. Around 100 photographers, camera buffs and collectors showed up to buy, sell and schmooze about their favorite subject.

The cameras weren't all antiques, but most of them were film cameras as opposed to digital cameras. Over the last five years, digital cameras have begun to dominate the market, according to one of the event's organizers.

"Film is vanishing. The overwhelming majority of pictures made today are digitally captured," said Blake Davis, a professional photographer based in San Rafael who put on Sunday's event with fellow photographer Tim Rice of Berkeley. Davis described the event as the first photo market in Marin for more than 10 years.

"About half of all professional photographers use digital cameras, and the trend toward digital will continue," said photographer and collector Scott Bilotta of Petaluma. Nowadays, Bilotta said, "film is becoming something used by people who are creating artistic photos," manipulating the photos in the darkroom.

The collector proudly showed off his $2,500 Bermpohl Naturfarbenkamera, a color camera that was invented before color film existed. "You had to take the photo on three separate sheets of black and white, then assemble three photos dyed cyan, yellow and magenta," to create a color shot, Bilotta said.

"I love cameras. I saw there was a camera show and thought it would be cool to check it out," said Emily Newell. Unlike the majority of attendees, who were male and chronologically advanced, Newell is 16 years old.

"I'm really interested in photography," she said. Before the old Niven Nursery site at Doherty Drive in Larkspur was torn down, Newell took more than 400 photos of the property.

The Larkspur resident owns more than a dozen cameras.

"The older ones (cameras) are more interesting — the art of it and the science," Newell said.